Countries most at risk of climate change impacts, including Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sudan, and Vietnam, are pressuring other world leaders to cap climate warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

From The Guardian:

As more than 140 world leaders made short opening statements on Sunday, 44 countries that are members of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), along with other vulnerable countries, declared that the 2C goal being backed by all major blocs would seal the fate of hundreds of millions of people in countries like Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sudan and Vietnam.

“Our members are particularly vulnerable to climate extremes and climate change impacts and we are acutely aware of the vanishingly little time remaining to adopt a legally binding climate treaty,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, environment and energy minister of the Maldives and chairman of Aosis.

“We are the countries who will suffer the most from climate change and against whom all the big [negotiating] groups like the US, EU and G77 are aligned. We are the majority: 106 of the 195 countries of the world want this 1.5C target. But there is no democracy here. It’s a power game and the powerful are not on our side,” said the CVF’s spokesman, Saleemul Huq. “We accept it is not realistic, but it is the right thing to do.”

What is ACT?

The Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) brings leading experts from around the world together with industry, community, and government decision-makers to explore the risks posed by top-of-mind climate change issues and to identify opportunities for sustainable adaptation.